Abbott Launches COVID-19 Home Test Kit In India: 9 Things To Know

Abbott COVID-19 Home Test Kit: American medical device company Abbott Laboratories said that it has launched its COVID-19 home testing kit in India for adults and children.

The kit will be priced at Rs 325 and is aimed at detecting the virus among children and adults who are showing symptoms of COVID-19.

In a statement, the company said that in order to ease the burden on healthcare systems in urban and rural areas in India, it will deliver millions of Panbio rapid antigen tests for COVID-19.

Previously, Pune-based Mylab Discovery Solutions released India's first self-testing COVID-19 kit which was approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Read more on that here.

Here are 9 things we know about the Abbott Panbio Rapid Antigen Test:

1. The test is available for Rs 325 per kit and can be used in both adults and children with or without symptoms.
2. A pack of four kits will cost Rs 1,250, a pack of 10 will be available at Rs 2,800, and a pack of 20 at Rs 5,400.
3. The kit has been approved by ICMR and will be made available to ramp up the testing of both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals and also of those people who have come in contact with COVID patients.
4. According to Abbott, the company plans to deliver 7 million test kits by the end of July and have the capacity to bring millions of more testing kits to support the country's needs.
5. The company will also scale up their manufacturing as needed to meet the testing needs in India.
6. The test kits will be available pan-India in both urban and rural areas of the country through online and offline channels.
7. Abbott said that their aim is to reach more than 80 per cent of India's population with the kit.
8. Nirmal Kumar Ganguly, who is the former Director-General of ICMR has said that access to fast, easy, and accurate testing can speed up India's preparedness to restrict disease transmission.
9. He also said that the kid enables and empowers individuals and give them the ability to carry out the first line of protection against the spread of the virus.